


How to seduce your pizza-man at 12 AM

by ferric



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 05:55:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1499131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferric/pseuds/ferric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seduce your pizza-man at 12 AM. Fail. Then try again. (More accurately summarized as: how could you write a pizza-man!Levi AU without including porn??)</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to seduce your pizza-man at 12 AM

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for sugarelixir and nikooki for looking over this fic for me. They were super sweet and supportive despite my derping. ;A;

 

 

 

Levi wasn’t good at smiling before, but he sure was a god damn professional at it now. It took him a grand total of two orders to figure out that smiling gets him a higher tip, and it took him two weeks to perfect the smile. Now he just smiled on instinct, although if someone asked him to do it, his smiling attempt would make him look like a demented serial killer; the description was courtesy of Petra.

He had been a part-timer at Ral’s Pizza since high school, and when he graduated he became a full-timer. Despite the shitty pay, Levi liked this place. Tony treated him better than the asshole manager at Seven Eleven, or the screaming-Cantonese lady at Palace Jade. The fact that Levi baked the pizzas perfectly every time helped. It also didn’t hurt that Levi was the reason why Tony’s pizza joint remained spotless. Every health inspection went without a hitch.

Levi had become somewhat of a legend among his coworkers because of these reasons, though it didn’t help that Tony talked as if Levi popped out of the womb as a pizza-making machine. So all in all, his work was fine, his boss was fine, his coworkers were fine, and the Domino’s five streets down could kiss his ass.

"Pepperoni, sausage, and jalapeno," Erd called out, and Auruo went on the move. Thursday nights had always been slow nights, but no matter what, there was one person who would order the same thing every Thursday night.

"Same address?" Levi asked, already knowing the answer as he glanced at his watch. 10:45 PM, as always. “Jalapeno? That’s a new one.”

"Yeah," said Erd. "Sorry."

Levi had faced his fair share of memorable deliveries. When he first started, he liked to make up stories for each of the customers. For example, there was this tall blond guy, Erwin Smith, who was a regular. When Levi first met him, he had imagined Erwin as some British dude with too much money on his hands and as someone who was running away from his parents like a petulant child, only to be disappointed when Erwin opened his mouth and said with a brash American accent: “Twenty-five dollars, right?” Levi later found out Erwin was an English professor (how boring), but he still liked to imagine that Erwin secretly made porn videos for a living or something. Erwin always tipped well - he always gave a nice ten dollars - so Levi tried not to sully his image too much. Besides, Levi liked porn. So Erwin was alright.

Now, another weird customer was someone Levi didn’t know if he even wanted to deliver to even if they gave him a twenty-dollar bill every time. Let’s just say in one of the safer deliveries, Levi pulled up to the house (in a nice upscale neighborhood and everything so he didn’t expect it), but before he could get out of the car, he heard a bunch of foreign shouting and the sound of a shattering bottle, followed by a scream. Levi watched with horror as a group of people walked from the back of the house, carrying the screaming person into the back of an SUV.  There was a lot of shouting, and when someone from the group turned to look at his car, Levi ducked his head, heart hammering in his chest until the SUV drove away. When he raised his head, however, he jumped as the guy from across the street stared at him through the car window. The guy took the pizza from Levi and tipped him double the cost of the pizza, at which point Levi knew—without a doubt—that if anyone asked, he had seen nothing.

The third customer, the one who called every Thursday, was the weirdest customer, by far. It wasn’t because Levi had a thing against kids in particular; this one was just out there. This customer ordered the same thing every Thursday at exactly 10:45 PM, and he refused to tip any of the other delivery people except for Levi.

“What a dick!” Auruo once complained after a Thursday delivery, and Levi didn’t say anything because he always got a tip from this kid. It helped that the kid wasn’t bad looking, and if the kid was within his age strike zone, well then..

“This one’s for you then,” Erd said, taking the pizza out of the oven.

“Was it ever for anyone else?” Auruo grumbled.

“It’s not my fault,” Levi said as he rolled the pizza cutter over the pizza before putting it back into the oven to finish baking .“Your face probably pissed him off.” Auruo made a protesting noise, and Levi held back a smile.

“Is it Levi’s boyfriend again?” Petra peeked out from the back room, not focusing on studying like she was supposed to. Levi wanted to remind her of her SATs this Saturday. Her father was determined for his little girl to not follow the family business.  

“Not a boyfriend,” Levi said, although it fell on deaf ears as Erd said, “Yep, the one with the dazzling green eyes.”

“I didn’t say “dazzling,” I didn’t even mention what color they were,” Levi corrected, but of course, his coworkers were pieces of shit because Gunter said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Levi found his knight-in-shining-armor.”

“Go die,” said Levi.

“I don’t think knight-in-shining-armor is the right term,” said Petra, abandoning her biology review to join everyone else in poking fun at Levi in the kitchen. “The other day, when he was taking a nap in the back room, he was not moaning about a knight in his sleep.”

This earned a great guffaw from everybody, annoyingly accompanied by clapping. “You will all face painful deaths,” said Levi, but Petra just smiled at him with a faux-innocent look. Levi wanted to remind her if she didn’t pass her AP tests this year, her father was going to take away her car.  

“I think you should try to enjoy this evening more to get rid of that negativity.” Petra smiled.

“I will tell your father you forged his signature on the parents’ permission slip last week,” Levi said spitefully, even though he knew he wouldn’t do it.

The pizza should be ready now, Levi told himself, and sure enough, the timer dinged just in time.

“Pizza’s ready,” Gunter called out, and as Levi left for the delivery, he was given a round of applause and a lot of good luck pats on the back. In one memorable moment, Erd even slipped a condom into Levi’s pocket before telling him, “Good luck!”

Those shitheads would pay later. Dearly.

 

 

***

 

 

Chain link fences, teenagers sitting on the curb smoking, the occasional “Aye Mami” at the local girls, nail and hair salons with peeling white walls and fading neon red signs - all ebbed away as the trees on either side of the streets became more neatly placed and the grass patches more freshly cut.

Levi knew he was getting closer and closer to the neighborhood when the car that,  unfortunately, had been driving behind him and blasting the annoying “Ay na, na, na, nai” song, took a turn many blocks back.

“Annoying song,” Levi muttered under his breath as he rolled up to the main gate. He didn’t understand why people would pay more money to live behind iron gates when, historically, humans had tried to free themselves from gates and walls, but if this was the new fad, he wasn’t going to question it. Besides, they were decent tippers.

It was one of those upscale neighborhoods surrounding the lake. The lake wasn’t officially branded as private property yet—the land dispute was complicated—but the only access to it was through the privately owned homes and parks surrounding the area, all with white fences and “do not trespass” signs. When Levi was younger, he and Isabel and Farlan jumped the fence and trespassed anyway because the summer heat was unbearable, and hell if they were going to let the rich bastards hog the lake.

Levi didn’t have card access to the main gate, so he used the intercom. The red and white roadblock lifted with a groan, and Levi drove by, giving the guard on the left booth a small nod. Good guy, Mike. They went to the same high school but didn’t talk to each other since that one time Levi’s car leaked out oil and Mike pointed out to him.  

“The usual?” Mike called out.

Levi shrugged.

Mike sniffed the air and gave Levi the most annoying grin ever known to mankind. “Someone’s going to get lucky tonight.”

“You say that every Thursday night,” Levi said. Mike always said the same thing every time Levi had this delivery.

“But tonight is the night. I can smell something different.”

Levi opened his mouth to say something then closed it. There was jalapeno today, and no offense, but the kid didn’t look like he could handle black pepper. “It’s the jalapeno.”

“Ah,” Mike said knowingly, and Levi narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher what Mike got out of the smell of jalapeno. The pizza was well in the backseat within its heat bag, but Levi wouldn’t put it past Mike to sniff it out.

“Good luck, Levi,” Mike said in that wise, mysterious tone of his, which Levi didn’t know how he managed given that they were the same age, but Mike was Mike.

Levi didn’t bother to say anything as he drove away, anxiety taking away his pizza-industry-trained needs to be polite. It was a short ten minutes to the house, and Levi noted the empty driveway in front of the garage. His parents weren’t home.

Levi would never admit that he checked himself in the rearview mirror and fixed the blue cap on his head, but he wanted to look at least somewhat presentable. It was a lost cause though. The grease and oil and cheese smell had long settled in his clothes. He had been working since morning and didn’t have the time to freshen himself up today.

As he took the pizza from the back seat and headed up the walkway, the intimidation he felt from the overpriced tropical plants lining on both sides was as small as the sauce stain under his left breast pocket. By that he meant none. Levi didn’t have anything to fear because—

Of course the empowering speech in his head came to a halt as the door swung open.

“Hey!” Eren smiled.

Levi took a moment to take in the fact that Eren was in a worn out T-shirt and shorts, both of which looked soft to the touch. “It’s fifteen dollars,” he blurted out. There might be a smile on his face, he wasn’t sure.

Levi forgot to say good evening.

“Oh, umm.” Eren looked shocked as he patted both sides of his hips. “Let me just get my wallet.”

“Sure,” Levi said. He wasn’t sure what compelled him to say it, but he added. “It’s the last of my shift anyway.”

“Oh is it?” Eren didn’t sound surprised. He scratched the back of his neck. “That’s good. This might take a while because I don’t remember where I put my wallet, but why don’t you come in.”

“It’s fine. I’ll wait,” said Levi.

“It’s going to take a long time. My room is pretty messy.”

Levi frowned, but he swallowed down his disapproval as much as he could. Of course Eren’s room would be messy. Levi guessed that he was only a teenager.

Although, when Levi was a teenager, his room was spotless.

“You’re going to let a complete stranger inside your home,” Levi said skeptically. He raised an eyebrow for additional effect.

“Oh, come on, you’re not a stranger. We’ve known each other for a long time now.”

“If by long time you mean the two months I’ve delivered pizza to you, then yes.”

“You know my name.” Eren shrugged.

“It’s on your debit card.”

“Don’t worry. If you try anything, the security system will pick you up easily,” Eren said.

“Of course,” Levi sighed.

“Wait no. I trust you not to try anything.”

“Thanks,” Levi said.

“I didn’t mean to imply that you would—” Eren fumbled with his words. He wasn’t doing well with words today, so Levi took pity on him.

“I’ll wait in the living room until you find your wallet.”

“Great.” Eren broke into a relieved smile. “Here, let me show you the way. Do you want any water, tea, or soda?”

“I’m delivering pizza, not making a house visit,” said Levi. He didn’t know why Eren had to lead the way when the living room was the first room they walked into—it wasn’t Levi’s first instinct to walk upstairs or head deep down the hallway to find the living room. Nevertheless, Levi let Eren lead him into his fancy house with the best TV system Levi had ever seen in any house ever.

“That is a sweet TV,” Levi thought to himself, and as Eren grabbed the remote and navigated to Pandora for the classical music channel, Levi discovered that the sound system was even better than he’d expected.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Eren said as the soft sound of violin began to fill the room.

“For the five minutes it takes for you to find your wallet? Sure.”

“I’ll be back.” Eren smiled.

Levi felt too conscious about the smell of pizza on him to sit down on the expensive brown leather couch, so he decided to stand in one place. It was a nice home, and it made Levi felt even more conscious and uncomfortable. The more he stood there, the more he wanted Eren to hurry the fuck up.

Eren sure took his sweet time because Levi swore Eren showed up about five hours later. Rather than carrying a wallet in his hands, he was holding two cans of soda. “Since you’re driving later,” Eren explained, which wasn’t an explanation at all because—

“I’m not making a house visit,” Levi said.

But who was Levi kidding? He knew what Eren was up to when he first saw him tonight, and if he was honest with himself, ever since he noticed the way Eren looked at him, he knew this day would happen in the future. (When Levi said ‘knew,’ he meant ‘fantasized,’ but at the time they were close enough.)

“Since it’s your last shift and this pizza is too big for two, do you want to…keep me company? We could watch a movie too.”

This evening was quickly becoming either a cheesy romance or a murder mystery. Levi was trying to decide which one it was right now.

When Levi didn’t reply for a long time, Eren said sullenly, “This is kind of weird, isn’t it? I should have just asked you out instead.”

“I don’t know why you thought it was a good idea to invite me in like this.”

“I didn’t think this through very well.”

“No.”

“I guess there is no chance you would say yes?” Eren asked. His words were one thing but his hopeful tone was another. “If it makes you feel any better we could sit out on the porch and eat?”

Apparently sitting outside would be safer for Levi. This was becoming the strangest night in Levi’s life, and he struggled between trying to figure out how old this fine ass in front of him was and leaving completely to go back to his unexciting normal life.

“Thanks for the offer, but even though I look like this, I could snap you like a twig,” said Levi. “But let’s sit outside. The smell of your living room is making me nauseous.” Mostly, Levi didn’t want to get his pizza smell all over the nice couch.

Eren looked like he wanted to dance in happiness. Eren was lucky he was ridiculously hot as fuck for someone who was probably a decade too young to be hitting on Levi.  Otherwise, Levi would have just demanded the cash and leave. Not that Levi would ever admit it to Eren right now.

Eating pizza out in the porch was not the best date idea Levi had ever encountered in his life, and frankly speaking it was very high school like. It was better than a lot of dates Levi was forced through though, and besides, Eren being Eren was nice perk.    

“I can’t believe you agreed,” Eren said as he settled down next to Levi. Levi took the can of soda that Eren offered him and pried it open with a snap. There was another hiss of air next to Levi as Eren did the same. The box shuffled between them, and they each took a slice.

“I have nothing better to do on a Thursday night.” Besides, Levi got to start later on Friday. He didn’t have to get back so soon just yet. He was only going to go back to sleep anyway.

“I’ve been wondering,” Eren said with a mouthful of pizza. It was summer, and they were by a lake, so the night was warm. The decision to sit outside like this was not a bad one. Trees and bushes surrounded the porch, and their leaves brushed against Levi’s arm. “But did you use to hang out at the lake when you were younger?”

“I don’t live around here,” said Levi. “But I used to sneak in with my siblings. Why?”

Eren’s face broke into a grin. “A red headed girl and a blond boy, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Levi tried to remember if he had seen Eren around back then. There were a lot of kids that played by the lake every summer, and Levi didn’t get involved with them because 1) he was a teenager and the kids were years younger than him and 2) he didn’t want to get caught trespassing.

“I thought that frown looked familiar. Levi, right? I played with the neighborhood kids by the lake every summer.”

“Were you the kid who snitched on us?” At one point, Levi, Farlan, and Isabel were caught by one of the adults because a kid told the parents, and they couldn’t trespass again at the threat of having the cops called on them.

“No way. I was the one who helped you out.”

Suddenly Eren looked familiar, and Levi remembered a scrawny kid who wouldn’t stop following him. Before Levi and his siblings were caught, there was another time when they were almost caught. They were saved by a kid who told the concerned mother that Levi and his siblings lived in the neighborhood over on the west side of the lake. For some reason the kid was attached to Levi, and Levi played with him a couple of times, and talked to him a few other times, but their interactions were limited to what Levi would called “civil acquaintance.”

“You grew up.” Gone were the chubby cheeks, but the wide set eyes were still there. Eren grew up nicely.

And another bonus: his smile was way more attractive than it had any right to be. “I did. Do you like what you see?”

“Not half-bad.” Levi took another look at Eren, and decided that the years and puberty had been kind to Eren. Levi appreciated this. A lot.

“That’s a yes, right?”

“It’s a maybe.”

“And you’re not bad at all. You’re so—” Eren gave Levi a look over, his sentence died out with a choking sound at the back of Eren’s throat, and damn if Levi didn’t think that was the hottest sound ever. But as of right now, Levi was wondering if he would get lucky tonight, and if he did, if Mike and everyone at Ral’s would give him a hard time about it. He knew he shouldn’t go for it because he barely knew Eren, but he was so tempted.  

The bravado left Eren as quickly as it came, it seemed. “Was that weird for you?”

Levi felt more flattered by Eren’s gaze than he should have been, especially since he was still wearing the stupid pizza-man uniform and smelled like cheese. “No.”

They gave him a condom, Levi remembered.

He had a condom.

“So, how long have you been a pizza man anyway?”

Right. Levi should actually talk to Eren and get to know him.

“Since I was a junior in high school,” said Levi.

“How long ago was that?”

Levi frowned, trying to count the years in his head. He graduated in ’04, so now it would be about…. “Eleven years ago.”

Levi could see Eren mouth a noiseless “wow” next to him. “And how old are you, kid?”

“I’m legal” was Eren’s automatic response. That didn’t bode well for Levi. Usually when people said it, it meant “barely legal” more than anything.

“How legal?”

“I just turned 21 last March.”

That wasn’t bad at all. Eighteen, Levi would have to do a lot of thinking, but twenty-one wasn’t too bad. Still wasn’t Levi’s preference, but at least not freshly out of high school. Levi was already a working adult when he graduated, but a lot of these kids in this part of town weren’t.

“So what? You’re home from school? Living with your parents? Working somewhere?” Levi guessed, trying to remember how many years people took to go to college. Most of the kids living around this lake had parents loaded enough to send them through college twice. (Probably.)

“I graduated early,” Eren said. “Now I’m just living with my parents.”

Levi had learned that it was wise not to ask the kids in Eren’s situation what they were planning to do next. He knew he wasn’t the best person to go to for life advice, and he wasn’t going to be a life counselor, so he nodded in understanding and left it alone.

Of course Eren was in a story-time mood. “I graduated early so I would have time to work on my law school application,” Eren began, and Levi could already hear the “but” before Eren had a chance to say it. Levi watched as Eren twirled the remaining crust in his hand. “But after I graduated I just felt so lost. Law school was something my parents wanted me to do, but I don’t know if I even want to go. But I can’t not go to law school.”

Levi didn’t understand this because unlike Eren, he just knew he needed to work. He wasn’t good with school, and without money, it wasn’t even an option. He could have joined the Marine Corps with Farlan or the Army with Isabel, but being told what to do without question wasn’t his style. So he went into the workforce. Levi didn’t understand why Eren spoke as if law school was his only lifeline.           

“If you want to go, go. If you don’t want to go, don’t,” said Levi. “It’s not rocket science.” With all of Eren’s life contemplation, Levi had managed to finish his slice of pizza and was now on the quest for another.

“I just feel so trapped, you know?” Eren whispered. Levi turned to look at him, and Eren looked more lost than a kid his age who had it all should be. For a second Levi forgot about his fight with the strand of cheese that refused to let go of his pizza slice. “I went to college because everyone else did, and because it seemed like the next step. Now I have to go to law school because it’s the only thing I can see myself doing after spending all of my college years working up to it.”

“Look,” Levi began after another bite of pizza. “Our situations are different so I can’t tell you what you should or should not do.” For example, Levi didn’t understand what Eren was on about with everyone required to go to college, but it was one of those weird things about this part of town, like parties with too many blond people who went to tanning salons rather than work a day out in the sun to darken their skin. “But the best way to solve your problem is just to make a decision and do something. You can move forward; you can step back. Just do something.”

“But what if it’s the wrong one, and I’m stuck?”

“Then you do something and get yourself unstuck. Leave the sitting around and contemplating life to the dead Greek philosophers. When you were a kid and the dentist needed to pull a tooth out, did you sit around and think about whether or not it’s the right decision?”

“I didn’t need a dentist to pull my teeth out,” said Eren. “They fell out on their own as I grew out new ones.”

Well, thank you, Mr. Perfect Dental Record.

“You get my point,” Levi said, finishing up another slice of pizza. It was weird eating the pizza he made about an hour ago on a possibly-a-date. “You kids these days. All big words and no action.”

Eren made a protesting noise, and Levi was about to keep telling him to suck it up and do something for himself when suddenly Eren’s face was much closer than he remembered.

“You sure about that?” Eren whispered.

Levi almost dropped his can of soda in shock, and he had to place it down next to him with a shaky hand. Eren smelled like cool mint, Levi thought with approval. Yet, even though Eren’s face was so close that Levi could feel Eren’s warm breaths against his face, Eren kept staring at Levi’s lips without doing anything.

See? All big words and no action.

Levi thought it was time he took this business into his own hands. He grabbed Eren by the front of his T-shirt and pulled him in. “If I waited for you to do something, my hair would turn gray.”

“Your hair is already turning gray. Look, you have a gray hair right here.” Eren reached out and tugged at a supposedly gray hair, but Levi could barely see it from the corner of his eyes. Besides, this was not the point.

“Are you going to let me kiss you?”

“Please continue.”

Polite and good teeth. Sounded like Levi hit the jackpot.

Eren was a messy kisser, all saliva and tongue and absolutely no restraint. He had a hand on the back of Levi’s neck to push Levi deeper into the kiss, but when Eren tugged at the hair at the back of his head, Levi jerked at the pain. Levi pushed his hands against Eren’s chest and pulled back as a signal for Eren to stop, but Eren didn’t stop until he finished sucking on Levi’s bottom lip.

“S—sorry,” Eren panted against Levi’s lips.

If the hair pulling didn’t send a jolt to his waking dick, which Levi knew it did, then Eren’s flushed face and puffy red lips would make up for it.

“D—don’t pull on my hair,” Levi ordered. It could make this night end way too fast for his liking, and as much as he would like to come he didn’t want to do it so quickly. And over a kiss too.

“R-right.” Eren looked so jumpy and so desperate to continue that Levi wondered if Eren even heard what he said at all. As soon as Levi leaned forward again, Eren wasted no time in meeting his lips once more.

“Ca—” Levi began, but was quickly muffled by Eren’s eager mouth. He was firm, however, and pushed Eren back. “We can’t,” Levi gasped for breath as Eren pulled back. “Not out here.”

Eren looked like he was about to whine until they both heard the sound of a car driving by. Levi was about to ignore it because no big deal - cars passed by all the time - but then Eren whispered in a panic. “My parents are home.”

“Alright. I’ll just be on my way then.” It was going to be weird passing Eren’s parents and pretending he didn’t make a move on their son, but it was better than them catching him in the act.

Levi began to rise to his feet when Eren caught his arm.

“No, wait for me upstairs.” He opened the door gestured for Levi to walk in. “My room is the second one on the left.”

“What?” Levi scowled. “Are you crazy?” He could hear the slamming of the car doors and voices filtering up the driveway, and he did not want to have to explain to Eren’s parents what he was doing or why he was here. “Eren, let go of me.”

“Wait for me upstairs.”

“No. I can’t hide from your parents.” Luckily for Levi, Eren’s household enjoyed having random exotic plants that blocked the driveway’s view of the front porch, but the voices were coming closer and closer now. Levi had about ten seconds. “Eren!”

“I’ll be right up!”

“Hannah said she’ll email us the pictures,” a woman’s voice began drifting up the walkway, way too close for Levi to make an escape now without being awkward about it. “She’s doing a lot better now, isn’t she?”

“Damn it, Eren,” Levi hissed. “Let me go. I’ll wait for you upstairs.”

Eren let go of him then, finally, and Levi snuck back into the house, shutting the doors behind him with a soft click. It was a stupid idea, and Eren was going to have a fun time explaining why he was sitting outside by himself with a box of half-eaten pizza and two cans of soda, but since it was Eren’s idea, Eren could deal with the small details himself.

Levi rushed upstairs. There were muffled sounds of Eren talking to his parents behind him, and Levi hoped Eren could stall them as long as he could because his house had a ridiculously long and curvy staircase. Who the hell designed his house?     

Levi just reached the top of the staircase when the front door opened with a click, and the muffled voices cleared into loud echoes against walls of the large house. Levi ducked his head and shuffled down the hallway into the second room to the left. Luckily it was open.

“You should have come with us” was the last thing Levi heard before he closed the door with a soft click.

That was close.

Levi allowed himself a few seconds to catch his breath before checking his new surroundings. He prepared for the worst because Eren mentioned his room was messy, but it was a lot cleaner than Levi expected. There were two items of dirty clothes over a chair, the desk looked like it needed a good dusting, and the bookshelves needed a lot more than that, but it wasn’t too bad. From the state of the carpet and the hasty way the closet was closed, Levi knew the clearing of the room was a last minute thing.    

Levi stood because he couldn’t sit anywhere, not on the bed that wasn’t made and not on the chair with dirty clothes. He didn’t have to wait long until Eren knocked on the door and walked in.

“Why did you knock to enter your own room?” Levi asked before noticing a telescope by the window. Dust gathered softly on the now-dulling metal.

“Shit.” Eren turned back to look downstairs to see if his parents had noticed. They probably hadn’t. “Because you’re in here? It’s fine.” Eren closed the door behind him.

“So now what?” Levi asked.

“Ummm.” Eren scratched his head. “We can…talk?”

“Talk.” Levi gave Eren an incredulous look. “You went through all the trouble to get me into your bedroom just so we could talk?” He could see when the realization struck Eren judging by the expression on his face.

“We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” Eren said, licking his lips in anticipation. He eyed the dip of Levi’s neck down to the shirt collar.

Levi quirked his brow. “Fine, let’s talk,” he teased, pulling the sheets hanging dangerously at the edge of the bed over the messy mattress. He plopped himself down on the bed, and damn, this mattress was soft.

As expected, Eren looked absolutely disappointed, and it was one of the most hilarious things Levi had ever seen in his life. Levi almost felt sorry for Eren as he sat down on the bed next to him sullenly. “Okay.”

Eren’s thigh was warm against his, and the smell of cool mint shampoo and a hint of sweat were stronger than Levi’s dick could handle. Levi swallowed as Eren’s arm brushed against his, the light, soft prickle of his hair against Levi’s warm, bare skin.

Hair was good. Hair was really good. Eren seemed like he would have a bit of hair on his chest and a lot of hair below his navel. Levi was tempted to cancel this whole joke and just push Eren against the bed, sucking Eren off and feeling Eren’s rough hair scratching above his lips, pride be damned, but of course Eren kept his streak of terrible timing and began to speak.

“So, tell me about your work?”

Levi cleared his throat. “What do you want to know?”

Damn. Now they had to talk for real.

“Teach me about the profession of pizza-man,” said Eren.

“I make the dough; I put stuff on the pizza; I bake it; I deliver it.” Levi said, trying not to feel too disappointed that they had taken the getting-to-know each other route. Eren had a nice bed too, what a shame. “Then I rotate the jobs with other people. There’s nothing much to it.” He paused for a bit, then: “I make the best pizza crust in town.”

“Even better than Papa John’s?”

“If you eat Papa John’s, don’t even talk to me again.”

“I only eat it when my parents order!” Eren protested, clearly missing Levi’s playful tone. Then again, Levi’s playful tone sounded the same as his normal tone.

“I can forgive you for that,” said Levi. “As long as you don’t eat Domino’s either.”

“It is cheaper than Ral’s, no offense.”

“You can’t put a price on good pizza.”

Eren looked like he disagreed, but he smoothly changed the topic. “So how do you make your famous pizza crust then?”

“I can’t tell you my secret trade. Can’t make any money that way.”

“It doesn’t seem like the shop is doing that well anyway,” Eren blurted out. He raised his hands in apology when Levi glared at him. “Sorry.”

“You’re not wrong,” Levi said. “It is more expensive than Domino’s or Papa John’s; that’s why we’re not doing so well, but Tony wants to make good pizzas rather than cheap pizzas and I respect that. He’s a good guy.”

“Okay.” Eren nodded.

“He is.” Levi frowned at Eren’s disinterest in what a cool guy Tony was. “He took me in and gave me a job when I was hovering in the back of his store taking discarded pizzas.”

“You were stealing his pizzas?”

“Shut up, I wasn’t. They were just pizzas that were burnt or made with the wrong order, and he used to stack the boxes out back.” When Levi saw the expression on Eren’s face, he added, “I didn’t purposely make calls so that they would toss out pizza; I wasn’t that much of an asshole.”

“No, I wasn’t thinking that. I was just…surprised, I guess.”

“You do what you can when you’re hungry and have no money.” Levi shrugged. It had been a long time ago, but he remembered like it was only yesterday. “It worked for a few months, but then Tony got suspicious because I started noticing jalapenos and a lot of hot sauce on the pizza. The only thing that this accomplished, though, was getting me used to spicy food.”

Eren laughed, which was a pleasant surprise. Usually people got weird when he told them this story, and they got even weirder if he mentioned that his family was homeless at one point, but Eren seemed to take everything Levi said in stride. “How did Tony figure it out?”

Levi didn’t realize he was staring at Eren’s laugh lines until Eren’s question snapped him out of it. He folded his hands and kept his eyes on his thumbs just to stop himself from staring again. “I always took the pizza and left the boxes in case they did inventory and counted the number of boxes they tossed out, so he might have checked if the boxes were empty.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Yeah, anyway, one time I sneaked out to the back of the store after it was closed and the last employee had left. Except this time, there weren’t any boxes of pizza being tossed out. I only came every three days so I didn’t know that he had installed an automatic light in the back of the store since the last time I came. When the back light flashed on, it spooked the fuck out of me.”

“Did you run?” Eren looked gleeful at the prospect.

“No, I didn’t run,” Levi scowled, in a tone that said ‘what the hell do you take me for?’ “I did run when Tony popped out of nowhere though.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, that sly old bastard was hiding behind a bunch of crates. I don’t know how he managed it because he is one huge ass bastard, but he scared the shit out of me.”

“What did you do?”

“What else? I bolted the hell outta there.”

“And he caught you?”

“He didn’t catch me.” Levi frowned. “No one can catch me,” he clarified proudly, as if it was something to take pride in.

“Right.” Eren sounded like he didn’t believe him, the stupid brat. “But you said that he caught you.”

“I never said that. As I was saying—” Levi raised his tone to show that he wasn’t going to take any argument. “I bolted, but then Tony shouted at me to stop for the entire block to hear, and I stopped.”

“You stopped,” Eren said incredulously. He leaned forward and looked at Levi with interest, engrossed in the story as he was. “Just like that?”

Levi didn’t answer him at first. He’d never thought about why he stopped when Tony called him out—he knew Tony wasn’t going to be able to catch him. He could have left and never returned, and it was highly unlikely that Tony would have, or could have, tracked him down. “Got tired of running, I guess.”

Eren didn’t say anything for a while, and Levi didn’t either. They sat in silence with Levi’s unexpectedly intimate words.     

“And he helped you out?” Eren’s voice was soft.

“Yeah” was Levi’s simple answer. He still remembered it—the bright orange light over Tony’s tired face and messy stubble, the beer belly and beefy arms stretching the white cotton of his shirt—Kid, why are you doing this?—“He’s not a bad guy. He definitely helped me out when I was in a rough spot.”

Levi slid his feet across the carpet uncomfortably, feeling strange with the unexpected turn in the conversation. He didn’t exactly come upstairs to Eren’s bedroom to sob out his life story, but here they were, talking about his life story. “What’s your deal?” Levi asked, wanting to move on from this conversation before it became weirder.

“What do you mean ‘what’s my deal?’”

“Your sob story. Everyone has one.”

“I had a good life,” said Eren. “I don’t know what to say about my life that could top what you’ve just told me.”

“We all have ‘good’ lives,” Levi said. “We all have different life experiences. I can’t speak for you, but I think all of us just try to make the most of what we have. It’s not a competition which one of us has a better sob story.”

Eren let Levi’s words sank in. He sighed, slapping his hands on his knees and said. “It’s not a very new story….”

“Out with it.”

Eren looked hesitant at first, more than he should, and Levi didn’t understand what his deal was. It wasn’t a competition of who had the tougher life; Levi just wanted Eren to share something so he wouldn’t feel like a bitching self-absorbed asshole. “I don’t know. I feel like it would be weird if I told you.”

“I just told you how I ate from the trash to live. I don’t even care if you said you have two dicks by this point.”

“I do.”

Levi stared. “You’re fucking with me.”

“You want to see?” Eren began to pull at the waistband of his pants, and Levi would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t interested in the curl of brown hairs that ran to the waistband of Eren’s boxers. Before Eren could notice that he was staring though, Eren fell back against the bed, laughing.  

Levi watched as Eren picked himself up, laughter ebbing into hiccups.

“Still waiting for you to stop fucking around. We don’t have all night.”

“Okay, I’m done.”

Eren took his sweet time getting a grip on himself, but Levi could tell he was stalling for time out of nervousness. He kept shooting anxious look at Levi, and Levi didn’t know what his deal was because he clearly wasn’t here to judge Eren’s life.

“I’m not going to give you shit for it,” said Levi.

“I know. It’s not that. The problem is, you’re in this story, so it’s weird to tell you about it.”

Now Levi got too curious. He didn’t think he was an integral part of Eren’s life, but it appeared that he was. “Tell me,” Levi demanded.

“It’s not a sob story.”

“Tell me.”

Eren refused to meet Levi’s eyes as he began. “You used to hang around the lake with two other kids during the evening, after all the neighborhood kids had gone home.”

“Yeah?” It was merely for the sake of convenience. It was a strange upscale neighborhood where the working parents went to bed around eight or nine, so by six or seven all the kids went home for dinner with their families. As Levi thought about it, he did remember that Eren had hung around until Levi and his siblings left, but he hadn’t wanted to question it.

“My parents were gone a lot when I was a kid, so I stayed home with my grandma, who lived with us at the time. Grandma didn’t really do much except sleep all day, so I just hung out with the neighborhood kids because there was nothing to return to at home.”

Levi remembered that he was lucky to have Isabel and Farlan, who stuck with him through thick and thin. “Your parents not the nurturing type?” Neither were mine, Levi wanted to say. It was a story for another day though.

“They provide for me,” said Eren. “I get to live comfortably, I guess. It’s not too lonely because I have friends like Mikasa and Armin back then, but they had people to return to at home, and I couldn’t go with them to their place because I hated how everyone there felt bad for me. I’m not a fucking weakling; I can handle things on my own.”     

“You didn’t want pity.”

“No. I didn’t want empty promises that never got fulfilled either.”

“What did you want?” Levi asked, more out of curiosity than anything. It was another side to Eren that he hadn’t seen before, another piece of the image he had of Eren as a kid that fit with the rest of the puzzle perfectly. A lot of things made much more sense now than they did back then.  

Eren looked at Levi then, with a shocked expression as if no one had ever asked him that before. Eren didn’t seem like he had even thought about it. “I was fine on my own. I could make my own food, clean up after myself, but it was…lonely. Then you came around, and when I asked you to teach me to swim or how to fish or if you could help me with random things that everyone else said my parents could help me with, you just helped me without asking why. You didn’t ask me where my parents were or how I’m coping without them around; you just did things for me without asking for anything in return.”

Levi didn’t think that he had done a lot for Eren. At the time, the kid was there asking for small things, and Levi didn’t mind giving him a hand. He didn’t think much about what he did, at least not in the way that Eren thought about it.

But more importantly, Eren needed to stop because Levi was feeling second hand embarrassment for Eren on top of feeling embarrassed for himself.  

“You didn’t make promises you couldn’t keep.” Eren’s cheeks were ridiculously red, and Levi was finding it difficult to look at Eren right now. This wasn’t fair.

“That’s because I didn’t know you,” Levi said, wanting to put a stop to Eren’s romanticization of what little he had done. Levi did things for Eren because they were simple things for him at the time, and it really took little effort. “You said you wanted someone to love you without pity—that person isn’t me.”    

“What are you saying?” Eren frowned. “I know it seems small to you, but to me, it’s a lot. I really admired you as a kid.” Eren’s hand hovered in the air between them, as if he wanted to touch Levi but couldn’t quite work up the courage to do it.

“Admire me? I think you’d be better off going to law school than going into the pizza-business. You’re putting me on a pedestal that shouldn’t exist, kid.”

“I liked you a lot back then, and I’m starting to like you a lot now,” Eren said. “So there is my story: I had a childhood crush; I didn’t think I would see him again, but here he is, and I think I’m starting to like him a lot more than I did back then.”

“You suck at story-telling,” Levi scoffed to mask his embarrassment. His face might be heating up. “That’s a terrible story.”

“It’s not finished yet,” Eren whispered, his lips only an inch away from Levi’s. Levi didn’t notice when Eren got so close, but he swallowed, feeling nervous even though that was one of the cheesiest lines he’s ever heard.

“Are you going to keep this story on hiatus or are you going to do something about it?” Levi asked, more as a signal for Eren to keep going than actual irritation. When Eren didn’t respond, Levi grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him in.

However, he noticed Eren’s stupid grin.

He paused.

“What is it?” Eren asked, confused by Levi’s hesitation. His grin slowly faded away, and it struck Levi then that he wanted to see Eren’s grin more. He wanted to sit like this with Eren and…. It was boring and terrible and he was groaning internally about how lame he was being, but when he thought about how they was just going to have a one night stand and possibly never see each other again, he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to see Eren sobering up afterwards when he understood that Levi was just a dead end, a small spec in his eventual pursuit of a stable life, and he didn’t want to avoid Eren because he had finally gotten what he wanted from him all since the first day he delivered pizza to his house.  

Eren was a temporary conquest. An opportunity for mindless sex. Once it was done; it was over. Levi wasn’t the type to look back.  

Levi didn’t want this.

He pulled back. Eren’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“I don’t like the notion of having a one-time fuck with someone who knows my life story,” Levi admitted. When they knew too much, things got complicated. And messy. Levi hated messes.

“So there will be many times?” Eren chuckled, and Levi looked at him.

“Not quite.”

“Jesus Christ, Levi. You never told me,” Nanaba said once, and that was it, Nanaba picked up their stuff and left like everyone else before them. Levi didn’t tell people things; he never had and he never would,  _was it important for them to know?_ , but here he was trusting Eren with one of the most intimate details of his life.

“Why are you glaring at me?”

“I’m not glaring at you,” said Levi. “This is my regular face.” A thought passed through his mind, and he spoke even though his mind was suggesting otherwise. “If you could have a one-time thing with me and never see me again or—” He sucked in a breath, but Eren finished the sentence for him.

“Or have a chance to see you again?” Eren guessed, completely on the mark. He scratched the back of his neck. “That’s quite some pressure you’re putting on me. Why do I have to choose?”

“You can sit here and psychoanalyze me—”

“I’m not trying to make judgments about you.” Eren sounded sad. “I don’t really know you, do I?”

There it was. Now Eren knew. Levi could see when Eren’s over-romanticized image of his childhood hero began to slowly fracture. Levi wasn’t a good person, and he wasn’t going to pretend he was.

“No.”

Eren was looking at him differently now. That one fall avalanched to many others, and perhaps now he was seeing other things about Levi in a different light. He started to see many other flaws in Levi, things that he had seen as quirks, now weighing on the other side of the scale against all the bright childhood memories and fantastic imagination he had about Levi.  

“Would you really fuck me and then never see me again? Never call me back?” Eren asked, and Levi hated how Eren’s voice had gone soft. Levi had a brief moment when he wished that he had a different answer to give Eren, but that wouldn’t be fair because there had always been only one answer that he could give.

“I don’t look back.” was Levi’s simple answer.

Eren didn’t say anything for a long time, and he didn’t look at Levi either. Levi knew he ruined it, and he did regret it. But Eren was genuine, and Levi couldn’t hurt him like he originally planned to do. He couldn’t watch Eren like this either, disillusioned by him, so he rose to his feet.

Eren didn’t even lift his head.

The room was stuffy, and Levi had to leave. He made his way to the door, trying to make as little noise as possible as he walked. It wasn’t a problem. Petra once said that he moved like a ghost.

There was a moment when he paused in his track, wondering if he should turn back, but he was a man true to his words, so he kept going, closing Eren’s door behind him softly without taking a peek to see if Eren tried to stop him. Eren didn’t anyway. Luckily he saved himself the time and the pride.

It was dark when Levi headed downstairs—Eren’s parents probably went to bed—so there was nothing to stop Levi from walking out of Eren’s home.

He stood in front of his car, and against his better judgment, looked up at the lighted window where Eren’s bedroom should be. He felt nothing.

This wasn’t going to be the cheesy romance movie that Eren wanted, and though Eren might have hoped that it was, Levi didn’t want to ruin the reality for him later on down the road. It wouldn’t be fair for Levi to take what he wanted and leave. Levi wasn’t going to let Eren keep that stupid rosy image of him especially if it was going to be ruin later anyway.

“Childhood crush, are you fucking kidding me?” Levi sighed as he got into the car. “I’m no fucking prince.” He sat there for a while, staring at the light of Eren’s window.

Levi drove away when the light went out.

 

 

***

 

 

Contrary to what his mind ordered him to do, Levi drove to the lake that he used to go to with his siblings. New houses had popped up where large stretches of grass, trees and white fences had been blocking the way to the lake, and Levi had to carefully sneak to the back of a house with a “For sale” sign. Hopefully the house was empty. It would be awkward for Levi to be caught trespassing.  

He had to tread carefully through another large patch of grass and dodge random flower bushes, probably because this was the backyard of that house, but eventually he made his way to the old small staircase to lead to the lake.

Levi knew, as soon as his feet hit the earth, that he was back.  

It was dark, but he could vaguely see the moon’s face on the calm water, the occasional wind fracturing it into pale ceramic pieces. A lot of renovations had been done, and Levi couldn’t recognize many of the houses anymore. The old set of swings was still there, creaking every time the wind brushed past them. Boats sloshed about in the water, bound to a small dock to Levi’s left.

Levi went to sit on the dock.

He tried to remember those days filled with Farlan’s exasperated expression and Isabel’s laughs and Eren’s grins, but he couldn’t remember them well. He knew they were there, but they were like the fractured reflection of the moon on the water.

Levi didn’t know why he was here. Just as he expected, nothing came back, especially not the golden days that Eren thought of. As Levi looked back with his current perspectives, he couldn’t see what Eren probably had seen. They were so hungry then—he and Farlan and Isabel—but now they were doing better, even if they were apart. Life had happened, and they had all become different people, but Levi couldn’t reconcile those old days as better for the life of him.

Levi wasn’t the good person he once was, but he was better.

He couldn’t stop watching the calm waters though. There was something in them that hadn’t changed for the past fifteen years.

 

 

***

 

 

The next day, no one at Ral’s Pizza asked him about the night before, since he had come to work early in the morning. Erd did a double take when he saw Levi, and everyone who filed in after him did the same. Levi couldn’t blame them. He got annoyed when they shot him worried looks, but he wasn’t going to be mad when their assumption that he didn’t get any was absolutely correct.

It was still annoying though.

Erd was the one who stepped up to the plate and quietly asked Levi as they prepared for the noon rush. He probably thought that Levi’s tongue was looser when he was distracted with getting the toppings for the pizza ready.

Erd wasn’t wrong.

“So, thing didn’t go well with your prince charming?” Erd asked jokingly.

“It turns out that I was supposed to be his prince charming,” Levi said as he spread sauce over the dough.

Erd looked momentarily confused. “So he likes you?”

“Something like that,” Levi said, and Erd knew that was all he was going to get from Levi for today. It was already too much information.

It did sound rather stupid, Levi thought as he slid the pizzas into the oven. He backed away from Eren because he liked Eren too much. Utterly ridiculous. It was not the smartest move to do. Levi did regret letting Eren go.

At the same time, he didn’t regret destroying those foolish expectations Eren had for him.

Levi was trying to push away thoughts about Eren and focus on his work when Auruo called out, “Hey Levi, that annoying brat is here to see you.”

Levi nearly dropped the pot of pasta on the ground.

He quickly recovered, however. He carefully placed the pot down, wiped his hands on a towel, and cleared his throat before speaking. “Who?” It was a moot point to pretend he didn’t know who he wished it could be because he had been thinking about only one kid.

It would be extremely disheartening to find out that it wasn’t Eren.  

But Levi was rewarded with a familiar voice shouting, “Hey!”

“The asshole who wouldn’t tip,” Auruo said.

This caused another indignant “Hey!”

To be fair, not tipping did make Eren an asshole. You couldn’t not-tip a pizza-man. It was their livelihood.

“That was a shitty thing on your part,” Levi said as he walked to the front counter, sure enough, to find Eren glaring at Auruo, who quickly retreated to the back after he saw the expression on Levi’s face. “You have to tip for pizza delivery. Our gas for the delivery doesn’t come for free.”

The navy polo shirt suited Eren. He didn’t strike Levi as someone who wore a watch, but there was a bulky silver thing was on Eren’s wrist nonetheless. Eren didn’t look bad, but he did seem like he had put in effort into looking more grown-up.

“Sorry,” Eren said. “I thought that it would be the easiest way to get you to start delivering pizza to me.”

“You’re not wrong,” Levi admitted. It was very effective. “Decide to get pizza in person now instead of dealing with me?”

“I’m actually here to see you,” Eren said, looking uncomfortable and nervous. “I thought about what you said last night.”

“And you still came back?” Levi couldn’t keep the incredulousness from his voice.

“Well you said you won’t see me again if we had a one night thing, and we didn’t have a one night thing.” Eren shrugged carelessly, and Levi wondered if Eren missed the part when he said he didn’t want to fuck someone who knew too much about him.

“I shouldn’t have imposed an image of you that didn’t exist,” Eren continued. “I get it. Time went on. People changed.” Levi wanted to correct Eren that Levi wasn’t even a good person when they first met, but he held back that thought. “Maybe that story spooked you out because I suddenly dumped an emotional obligation on you—”

“I wasn’t spooked,” Levi interrupted. “I don’t get spooked.”

Eren didn’t look like he believed Levi, the brat, but he didn’t comment on it. “I just want to say that I’m not expecting you to be perfect, and I’m not expecting you to love me.” His expression softened, and Levi wondered what Eren saw on his face. It was probably nothing good because Eren sounded gentle. “Do you want to go out sometimes? To get to know each other?”

Levi was surprised when he felt a wave of relief wash over him. It didn’t make sense to him because no, he didn’t want to get involved with people who knew too much about him, but here he was, feeling glad that Eren wanted to know more about him.

A voice inside Levi was telling him that it was okay, that Eren was different. Eren had learned things about Levi that people usually got weird about, and replied with a smile. Eren had taken Levi’s warning that he wasn’t a good person but still come here.

For reasons he didn’t quite understand, Levi wanted to be someone for Eren. Someone for rich, future, idealistic, overly romantic Eren. Especially after Eren said that he didn’t expect anything from him.

“Even though I said I don’t fuck people who know too much about me?”

“Even then,” said Eren. “I want to see if this is something worth pursuing, and if it is, I’ll live on my right hand.”

Levi laughed.

It shocked them both. Levi tried to quickly muffle it, but amusement still escaped him in huffs of breaths. This was cheesy. This was really fucking cheesy. But Levi was ridiculously charmed by Eren, and there was no escape.

Maybe he was kind of fucked up emotionally, and Eren didn’t promise to accept everything about him, but this was enough.  

Eren was grinning at him again, and damn, it really was a charming grin.

“Last time you treated me to the pizza I made,” Levi pointed out.

“Have you ever heard of the saying “Nothing tastes better than your own fruit of labor”?”

“That’s not a saying; you made that up.”

“Then you might want to go out with me to a place where they make food for you so you can compare.”

“No, you got to decide last time. You’ve lost your chance,” Levi said. “We’re going to a place that I’m picking this time.”

Eren didn’t miss Levi’s roundabout way of saying yes. Seeing Eren’s face light up like that was worth the trouble of putting up with him for another night, probably.

“Does that mean you will pick me up?”

“Do I look like I’m made of money? I’m paying for our dinner, not the gas tank. You deal with that.” Besides, his car stank of pizza and grease, and there was no way they were going out in that.

Eren was cheesy. Eren was corny. Eren was way out of his league. Eren might bail once he found out more about Levi. But Levi was too busy not giving a shit about any of that right now.

“I’ll borrow my dad’s expensive car.”

“I will make sure to pick the most ghetto place there is.”

“My old car from high school then.”

“Pick me up at eight.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
